Law firm Dillon Eustace announces relocation of first unit trust investment fund from Caymans to Ireland

Opalesque Industry Update - Dillon Eustace, one of Ireland’s leading law firms, has announced the first unit trust investment fund relocation from the Cayman Islands to Ireland.

The move, which was completed on behalf of a major international financial institution and its underlying investor, follows the Irish Central Bank’s agreement to facilitate the general relocation of unit trusts. Legislation was also recently commenced to streamline the process of re-domiciliation of corporate funds to Ireland.

In this instance, the re-domiciliation has involved a Cayman Islands registered unit trust successfully relocating as an Irish Qualifying Investor Fund. More fund relocations are expected shortly.

Brian Dillon, Partner with Dillon Eustace said: “As investors demand increased regulation of their investment products, Ireland will increasingly become a centre for fund relocation. We believe there is now an emerging trend and argument for investment funds to be re-domiciled to Ireland from offshore fund jurisdictions such as British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

“There is no doubt that there is a growing appetite for regulated products from institutional investors worldwide. As a result, fund managers are looking at Ireland as a domicile for their internationally distributed funds because of the robust yet efficient regulation in place.”

For the past 20 years, Ireland has been the premier jurisdiction for fund managers establishing regulated investment products. Ireland also provides favourable tax incentives, competitive operating costs, a multi-lingual workforce and a well developed infrastructure with world-class support service

In 2010, assets under administration in Ireland reached all time high of €1.8 trillion, having risen from €1.2 trillion in 2009.

According to the most recent figures, Irish domiciled investment funds reached €899 billion in assets at the end of August. This constituted a 20% increase in value from the beginning of 2010 and a 27% increase from the same period last year.

Non-Irish domiciled funds currently total €939 billion. The previous reported high for Irish domiciled funds was €850 billion in October 2007.

This is the fourth consecutive quarter that assets under administration figures have grown in Ireland.